M400 Flight Test Plans Presently all test flights of the M400 Skycar employ a safety tether from above to protect the vehicle from catastrophic failure. Certainly during these early tests there are a number of failure modes with an aircraft that has 24 microprocessors and 25,000 lines of machine language software code. Additional factors that make a tether mandatory include: We are test flying within the Davis City Limits We presently have only one M400 aircraft Our insurance will go up substantially when the tether is not used while flying over land We plan to begin untethered flights when we have at least one additional M400 nearing completion. All flights will occur over a specially constructed lake. This lake is part of the Milk Farm development (see www.milkfarm.net), a commercial 60-acre development underway near the city of Dixon in California on Interstate 80. The lake will have an area of 5 to 6 acres and will be approximately 10 feet deep with a silt, rock free bottom. Most flights will occur at less than 50 feet altitude and will incorporate flotation gear attached to the Skycar.
About Moller Moller International was founded in 1983 as a spin-off of Moller Corporation to continue to design, develop, manufacture and market personal vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL). The company has developed and integrated the disparate technologies required for small, powered-lift VTOL aircraft. These include electronic stabilization and control systems, efficient ducted fan designs, thrust vectoring mechanisms and aerodynamically stable composite airframe structures. The single most significant spin-off technology is the Rotapower engine, a Wankel rotary engine. This engine is now produced and marketed by Freedom Motors. Our purpose is to develop and put into use personal transport vehicles that are as safe, efficient, affordable and easy-to-use as automobiles. These would not be constrained by existing transportation networks, and will provide quick and convenient transport to any destination better than any alternative. This vehicle should have a low environmental impact in terms of noise, emissions, and fuel consumption. Total costs of ownership over the life of the vehicle, including purchase price, operating costs and infrastructure costs should be reasonably low. This would be competing with such alternatives as personal or mass transport vehicles, general aviation, commercial air travel, and rail or motor vehicles. We believe the Skycar is this vehicle.
Where's My Skycar? Flying cars were supposed to be parked in everyone's driveways by now. One inventor is trying to make them a reality. By David Stevenson, Tech Live Printer-friendly format Email this story Video Highlight Will there be a Skycar in every garage? It looks a bit like a cross between a WWI-era Fokker airplane and a Jetsons spacecraft. The past meets the future this week on "Fresh Gear," when we'll show you the M400 Skycar, a million-dollar personal hovercraft that uses vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) technology. It's the brainchild of inventor Paul Moller. He also created a retro, working flying saucer as a precursor to the Skycar. It's all about the engines "It has the rotary engines that we developed," Moller says of the Freedom engines installed in the Skycar. "[They're] quite powerful. Each of these engines... is about 55 horsepower." Moller says the small but robust rotary engines enable Skycar to take off vertically and, theoretically, travel at up to 380 mph. It takes eight rotary engines, 24 microprocessors, and two flight computers to get the vehicle off the ground. So what's to keep a Skycar from falling from the sky? "Redundancy," according to Moller. If one engine fails, the others are powerful enough to keep the Skycar up. "If you're going to have a vehicle that's going to have general usage, you really have to arrange it in such a way that you can say, '[If] that engine fails, then this vehicle continues to hover,'" Moller says. Some minor hurdles Before Skycars can replace SUVs, Moller says, the Federal Aviation Administration must create new rules for neighborhood aviation. He envisions a system of aerial "highways." Skycars will be controlled by computers and GPS technology that will guide passengers to their destinations. "We'll have a highway in the sky that will allow any vehicle that's automated to fly on," Moller says. "You'll sit there and it'll take you where you want." That doesn't mean we'll someday see a Skycar in every suburban driveway. Each Skycar costs about $1 million, though Moller hopes it'll eventually cost about as much as a luxury SUV. Moller recently failed to sell a working Skycar prototype on eBay after no qualified buyer appeared. The goal had been to raise $2 million for future prototypes. There's another reason why a Skycar may never be parked outside your house: wind. "I don't think you're gonna take off in your driveway," Moller says. "This generates enough wind that you'd clean the streets and your neighbor's yard." Instead, Moller says we'll launch our Skycars from neighborhood "vertiports." Just press a button, sit back, and enjoy the morning commute from high in the sky. Originally aired November 18, 2003 Modified November 19, 2003
A similar question was posted on another LSU board. Like you, Sourdoughman, I've always loved ONE particular car - the SL Mercedes. A new one cost anywhere from $90-135,000 - a little out of my range. However, I've always been partial to the older models (approximately 1970-1986) anyway. To me, that model SL always the COOLEST street car ever made. Ironically, I have a client whom I am getting ready to settle a case for (I have 3 cases with her). She wants to "give" me a car in lieu of a portion of my fee (when it comes in). The car is a 1977 Red Mercedes 450SL which has been garage kept, has both the hard top & the soft top, and has less than 80,000 original miles. The paiht job is fantastic. Basically, it would cost me about $3-4,000. It hasn't been driven hardly at all over the last 6-9 years, so I'll have to have a mechanic look it over. However, the woman says it runs great (she has an SL400 Lexus and the Mercedes is just sitting in her garage). The SL (especially this model) has always been one of my favorites. Here is a picture (not the actual car) of a 450SL which looks exactly like the car I may HOPEFULLY get --
1967 Mustang - Shelby GT 500 I just don't have the $175,000 to drop on one. I've had this fascination long before Gone in 60 Seconds came out.
